Dressback

verb DRESS-BACK drɛs bak

Also spelled dress back, dress-back

To move back, retreat, or ease off — 'dress back likkle' means step back, give some room. Beyond the physical sense of shifting backward, 'dressback' can also mean to relapse or backslide, slipping back into an old bad situation or habit after seeming to improve, so that a person who was doing better but 'dressback' has fallen again. The word thus runs from the plain call to make space to the harder sense of sliding backward in life, undoing progress and returning to where one was.

  • Dress back an gi di people some space.

    Step back and give the people some space.

  • Him did a do better but him dressback inna di badness.

    He was doing better but he slipped back into wrongdoing.

  • Di crowd dressback wen di fight start.

    The crowd drew back when the fight started.

From 'dress' (in the sense of aligning/moving, as troops 'dress' ranks) plus 'back' — to move back; the relapse sense from sliding backward.

To step/move back; also to relapse or backslide. Context decides.